Strawberry Lemon Mousse Icebox Cake

That title. A mouthful. For real.

I had a birthday. And it was a busy weekend of birthdays, graduation, and holiday celebrations. And being my birthday, I always have a million and one ideas of things I want to make. But I only had an hour.

I thought about making an ice cream cake. But I decided to buy some Ferrero Rocher gelato instead. Have you tried it? My Mariano's sells it at their gelato bar. And if you don't have a Mariano's, then you're not from the Chicagoland area. And I'm sorry for you on both counts. Really, I am. And not in a rude way. It's just that I've lived here all my life cuz it's so awesome. And I have a Mariano's up the street from where I live. That's all. But I digress.

Remembering the light and fresh taste of the strawberry lemon mousse I made for this cake and these ice cream cone cupcakes, I figured an icebox cake would work perfectly with my time restraints and my taste buds.

So I was one happy birthday girl. Even though I found a partially gray hair that morning. It was some serious ombre on its own (Mostly dark brown, then bright gray, some light brown, then back to dark brown at the end. I should've taken a picture).

This icebox cake though. Makes me forget my partially gray hair. Except when I braid my hair when it's warm out. Cuz it's almost summer. And I'm ready for it. It's.so.close.

Strawberry Lemon Mousse

4 cups frozen strawberries, thawed
1 cup sugar
1 oz. sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
juice and zest of 1 large lemon or 2 T of lemon juice
8 oz. whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
1. Using a food processor or blender, blend strawberries and sugar until smooth.
2. Strain out seeds.
3. Return mixture to food processor.
4. Add dry pudding mix. Blend until combined.
5. Mix in lemon zest and juice.
6. Pour mixture into large bowl.
7. Gently fold in thawed whipped topping.

                                                       {lemon cookie layer}                      {biscuit cookie layer}                

Icebox Cake

Strawberry lemon mousse, prepared
24 biscuit cookies
20 lemon-flavored thin wafer cookies (depending on size)

Directions:
1. Layer 12 biscuit cookies on the bottom of a 7 x 11 in. baking dish
2. Scoop about 1/3 of mousse onto cookies. Use a small, offset spatula to spread evenly over cookies.
3. Layer 10 lemon cookies on top of mousse.
4. Scoop about 1/4 of remaining mousse on top of lemon cookies and spread evenly.
5. Layer 10 more lemon cookies on top of mousse.
6. Scoop about 1/2 of remaining mousse on top of lemon cookies and spread evenly.
7. Layer 12 biscuit cookies on top of mousse.
8. Scoop and spread remaining mousse on top layer.
9. Cover with foil and chill in refrigerator overnight.

Notes:
* Straining the strawberry seeds out takes the longest time. This 'cake' is easy, but this part is not quick.
* I found my cookies at Wal-Mart. I went with the biscuit cookies to have a thicker cookie layer, and I added the lemon cookies because they sounded good. And it was. But if you think it's crazy to buy two different types of cookies, by all means, do what suits your taste buds.
* My amounts of mousse are approximate. I only wanted a thin layer of mousse between the lemon cookies, and about equal parts of mousse for the other layers.
* The chill time in the refrigerator is what helps the mousse soften the cookie layers, so if you're planning on making/serving same day, you'll want to still let it sit for a few hours before serving.
* I thought about garnishing the cake with fresh strawberries, but I didn't - again because of time.

dip it good.

The last time I blogged was a year ago...about s'mores. Now, you may think that's all that comes out of my kitchen, but I swear there's more variety! I just happen to love s'mores. :)

After making some mini s'mores cupcakes for a friend's birthday, I had some frosting left over. Remembering this cake and serendipitously making a dip as my niece and I scraped the bowls, I decided to make the dip on purpose. And getting together with some of the hubs' co-workers took away some of the guilt.

 S'mores Dip

For chocolate ganache

8 oz chocolate chips

1 c heavy cream

Directions: In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, heat heavy cream in microwave for 1 - 1 1/2 minutes. Add chocolate to warmed cream. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes. Stir until cream and chocolate are well blended. {I added more cream than a typical ganache because I wanted it to be dip-able.}

For marshmallow cream cheese frosting

4 oz cream cheese, softened

4 oz marshmallow fluff

3 T powdered sugar

Directions: Cream together cream cheese and fluff until well blended. Add powdered sugar. Mix until incorporated. {Note: This is a quarter of my regular recipe. I halved it for the mini s'more cupcakes and used whatever was left over to make this dip.}


To assemble: Spoon ganache into small dip bowl. Pipe frosting on top. Serve with graham crackers.

If you're serving this to multiple people and have a dish similar to this (multiple compartments), I highly recommend using it. This way, people can get to it from all sides and there will be less fighting. This wasn't my intention when I first decided to use this dish, but as people were dipping, it proved to work in everyone's favor. ;) 

hankering for s'more

Last month our closest friends, the hubs, and I went to the Dells for a long weekend. Nothing too fancy -- just a chance to hang out and get away for a minute. We rented a 'villa' (how it differs from a condo, I still don't know) with a fully-equipped kitchen, knowing we'd cook our meals. So upon arrival, we made the standard Super-Walmart run, and picked up the goods...including stuff for s'mores.

Long story short, we thought there was a fire pit at our place and our stove was electric. That's right people. No flames, no s'mores. So at the end of our trip, we had multiple bags of marshmallows. So I took one home. Unbeknownst to me, I already had a gigantic bag of marshmallows in the pantry.

Now picture this. Last week, it's 10:30 at night, the hubs is downstairs playing video games, and I'm in the kitchen standing over the stove toasting some marshmallows. And because I'm lazy clever, I grabbed LU cookies from the pantry, and proceeded to make my s'mores. Opening the graham crackers AND a chocolate bar seemed like too much work at the time. The next night looked more or less the same.

Fast forward to this past week, and my bestie is texting me about how she's making rice krispy treats. And being the preggo that I am, I'm thinking about them nonstop. The hubs and I were having some company too, so perfect opportunity to make some without eating the whole pan myself. So I make them, and they're every bit of delicious that I had wanted. Except, I still had a bag and a half of marshmallows.

Which leads us to yesterday. Upon being reminded that it was National S'mores Day, I needed more s'mores. But alas, we were going to my sister-in-law's and I wanted something more simple. So I made s'mores rice krispy treats. Because rice krispy treats are quick and easy to make, and s'mores are always a good idea.

S'mores Rice Krispy Treats

adapted from ricekrispies.com

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter

40 regular marshmallows

5 cups rice krispy cereal

4 graham cracker sheets, broken into small pieces

1/3 cup milk chocolate chunks/chips

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips 

For topping:

1/4 cup milk chocolate chunks

2 tsbp mallow bits* (or mini marshmallows)

Directions:

Measure out cereal into a large bowl. Add graham cracker pieces and chocolate.

(I use the microwave because I think it's faster.) In a separate large bowl, melt the butter in 45 seconds. Add marshmallows and stir to coat with melted butter. Microwave for 45 seconds and stir. Then microwave an additional 45 seconds and stir until butter and marshmallows are combined. 

Add cereal mixture to melted marshmallows and gently stir until all the cereal is evenly coated. Note: chocolate will melt. No worries.

Transfer mixture into greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chunks so they are evenly distributed near the top of the mixture. Use a piece of wax paper to evenly press down mixture in the pan. Finally, sprinkle mallow bits on top and lightly press down so they stick.

*Mallow bits are found near the marshmallows in a parmesan cheese shaker looking container, but with a blue top. They're made by Kraft. They're pretty much like the marshmallows you would get in the prepackaged hot chocolate. 

I put my pan in the fridge for about 10 minutes to help the mixture cool faster. Plus, I didn't want the rest of my chocolate to melt. Then I let it sit on the counter to cool normally. I cut them up and snuck a square checked for quality, thus fulfilling my s'more craving. 

Like I said, I brought them to my sister-in-law's, and happily left the rest there. But now that I've written this post, I'm fully regretting my actions and thinking that I need to make these again. Maybe right now.

oooh baby, baby...ba-baby baby

My bestie is was pregnant. (By the time I got around to this post, she already had her baby!) I'm pretty sure she tried to drop me hints before her and her hubby told everyone. And I was pretty clueless. hahahaha. It's not usually like that. Honest.

So when we finally knew what was up, I snapped into shower-planning mode. Being that she has no sisters, and her closest cousins are in Canada, a couple other girlfriends and I jumped at the opportunity to plan something amazing for our beloved girl and her baby girl {oh yes, and her hubby, too}.

It was very much a Pinterest-inspired shower, on a very tight budget, for a guest list mostly populated by the baby momma's Filipino family -- men included. Us hostesses rose to the challenge, and, months later, out came a successful shower to welcome an already very loved little one.

My bestie and I share a love for sweets, mostly anything in cupcake and cheesecake form. In our apartment in college, baked goods often took up the space on the counter between the fridge and stove...and while counter-top real estate was highly sought after, we happily allowed whatever sugary goodness that came from our oven to live there, rent-free. So planning from the beginning, I knew that I wanted to have a sumptuous sweet table for the shower.

I had the eyes of a hawk, scanning through pins, and reading up on my favorite blogs. So many good things surfaced, and it was hard to pare it all down. But I knew that in order to keep the high quality of anything I was putting my name on, I had to focus my efforts.

First, as any good hostess should do, I inquired as to what the guests of honor would like. She said that it would be best to keep the cupcake flavors simple, since there would be kids there as well. I figured with the assortment we would have, minis were the best option. And with chocolate and vanilla, it only makes sense to alternate the flavors, and give the butter cream some color. Green and pink accent the baby's room, so green and pink vanilla frosting it was.

She didn't know the extent of the options for the sweet table -- I like to have some surprises -- nor did she request anything else.

Because the baby's room is monkey-themed, I knew I had to make some monkey cake pops. And since the cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla, the cake pops were red velvet -- a favorite of the parents-to-be (and several guests, too). This is what I did.

I alternated pink and green cake pops as well, to add more 'pops' of color to the table.

After seeing the recipe for cake batter cheesecake on Pinterest, I knew I had to make these. They were SO. GOOD. I cut them into small squares -- perfect for a bite or two. 

There are two things, regardless of pregnancy, that my bestie usually has around: 1) a package of Oreos and 2) rice krispy treats {or at least ingredients to make them}. Seriously. This is one of many reasons why we get a long so well :P 

I had made these Oreo cheesecake cupcakes for my students, and they were a hit. So I knew these would be perfect for the shower. I did regular cupcake-sized cheesecakes, and bought some mini Oreos to make mini cupcake-sized ones as well.



One of the hostesses worked with me tirelessly through the night {thanks again, Danielle!}. She gets the credit for the rice krispy treats -- with sprinkles, to give them a little color and make them more festive. :)

She also made the white chocolate popcorn favors, like these {unfortunately, not pictured} which turned out awesome! (Note: It's a good idea to stock up on the pastel-colored white chocolate m&ms right around Easter.) 

For the favors: Using my 'fancy' scrapbooking scissors, I cut the tops off of plain paper lunch bags, and she stuffed them with the goods. We used thank you stickers that we printed out to close the bags and they looked great.

Last but not least, I wanted to make a small cake. Something with pink frosting. But since we already had the pink vanilla buttercream, I was thinking: strawberry! And nothing seemed more shower-like and springtime-y than strawberry lemonade. I was really excited about this cake. 

From the inside out: lemonade cake, strawberry lemon mousse, strawberry frosting. Check out my directions here.

We also had some assorted fresh fruit and my bestie's momma made her filipino fruit salad. Such a good way to round out this spread! 

We were very fortunate for all the help and support that we got from the grandparents as well a couple of friends and family - both behind the scenes and on the day of. Everyone's work made this shower a success! It was a great way to welcome this baby girl into the world. And now that she's here, I can't wait to start baking for her! :)

Read about the shower decor details here!

baby shower - monkey cake pops

To make the monkeys, I used a couple tutorials and pictures as guidance. This video by Dessert Decorating is pretty clear though. 

So this is what I did: I started with a regular cake ball. 

**For the ears: I used chocolate chips (flat side facing front). I didn't dip them in the melts before sticking them into the cake ball, as the tutorial suggested -- for me, it didn't seem necessary. 

**For the face and ear color: I had some peach candy melts and mixed in a few chocolate melts until I felt I had the right color. Other tutorials used a mixture of white and chocolate melts or just peanut butter melts. 

**Applying the face and ear color : In the video, she used toothpicks to apply the melts for the face and ears. Really warm or not, I found the candy melts rather difficult to 'paint' with. After a couple of super-lumpy-faced monkeys, I promptly poured the melts into a plastic icing bottle. This worked like a charm. 

If the melts got a little lumpy (started to dry more quickly than I was finishing the face shape) I just popped the bottle back in the microwave for 10 seconds or so. Be careful not to heat the melts too much. If it's too hot, it can crack your chocolate coating.

I did like the video tip of making the top part of the face shaped like a heart, and then the bottom of the face into an oval. 


Normally, when I make cake pops, I stick them in my Styrofoam stands to dry. For these, I laid them flat on a cookie rack to dry after I applied the face and ears, just to make sure none of the melts shifted or dripped off during the drying process.

**For drawing on the face: I only had the Wilton food markers on hand. I had used them once before, and I thought I was using them wrong. This time around, I learned that they're really not that great. At least on the candy melts they aren't. It took me a longer time to draw on the monkey faces than to outline them with the light brown melts. It was a tad bit frustrating.

Ordering new markers is on my list of things to do. I've heard good things about AmeriColor, and I love their gel coloring, so I can't imagine they'd steer me wrong. Any suggestions are welcome. 

Overall, these pops were fairly easy to make. I love the cartoonish look to them, which match a lot of the baby monkey decor that is out there. And even if you want to match the decor more precisely, this is a good starting point. 


Hope you have some fun monkeyin' around with these cake pops! (LOL...I had to...)

baby shower - strawberry lemonade cake

From the inside out: lemonade cake, lemon glaze, strawberry lemon mousse, strawberry frosting.

Instead of making my lemon cake, I thought: ooh! maybe I'll make a lemonade cake instead -- who knows what the actual difference is, aside from lemonade mix...it just sounded good to me. So I used this popular food channel personality's recipe. I made some slight changes, as I used my own white cake recipe and used lemonade vs. pink lemonade mix. I don't know if it was the mix or what, but the cake was on the dry side (didn't overbake either). Nor did it taste as lemony as I was expecting.

I ended up making a lemon glaze to generously brush onto the inside layers, hoping that would help both the lack of lemon taste as well as its dehydration.

I made a strawberry {lemon} mousse to go between the cake layers. Such a good choice. The original recipe is just strawberry. But I wanted the strawberry and lemon flavors to marry together, so I added some fresh lemon juice and lemon zest to the mix. The mousse is fantastic on its own. But it's sooo delish with the cake.

For the outside, I used Sprinkles' strawberry frosting recipe. Mmmmmm... One of the notes says it should be creamy like ice cream. Now, strawberry isn't my favorite ice cream flavor, but man is this frosting good! I added a little more milk to make it decorating-capable. And little pink ruffles for the baby girl? So sweet!

The cake, as a whole, tasted good, but I was a little underwhelmed. I'll have to make it again. Soon. With improvements. :)

Strawberry Lemon Mousse

adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients:
~16 oz. frozen strawberries, thawed
1/3 cup Splenda, rounded
1 oz. package sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix
~1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 tub (8 oz.) reduced-fat frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
Using a food processor, combine strawberries and Splenda until smooth.

Strain out the seeds. Toss 'em, unless you can figure out a brilliant use for them. Put the {somewhat seedless} strawberry mixture back into the food processor.

Add pudding mix and process until smooth. Add lemon juice and zest. Pulse to combine. Taste. Add more lemon if you like. Try to remember that you still have to add the whipped topping before you eat the whole thing.

Pour mixture into a large bowl. Fold in thawed whipped topping. Taste. Wash your spoon before it's too late. You will honestly want to eat the whole large bowl of strawberry lemon mousse. Just know that you have been warned.

Note 1: It takes the longest to strain out the strawberry seeds. Pouring a little at a time, I helped the process by running a spoon around the mesh strainer to force the mixture out a little more quickly. Just get as many seeds out as you can -- it'll be fine if some get through.

Note 2: I added the juice of a whole lemon and most of its zest. It doesn't really matter when you add it, as long as it's before the whipped topping. And I was going kind of crazy, so I'm pretty sure I added some lemon extract as well. I wasn't tasting the lemon, and I wasn't thinking about the flavor enhancing as it chilled. Either way, the extract didn't hurt it, but you could probably do without. :)

The original recipe serves the mousse as is - making 8 servings. I love it as a cake filling. This makes plenty for about 1" of filling in a 6" round cake {Perfect to have your own bowl while you chill your cake}. Next time, I may make more cake layers to use more of the mousse.

**FOR THE CAKE**
After I spread the mousse onto my bottom cake layer, I carefully put on the top layer. At this point, you may want to freeze the cake for about 30 minutes, before applying your crumb coat. This is to prevent the mousse from smushing out as you put the first layer of frosting on. Nothing bad will happen, it will just make things a bit easier.

For the ruffles, I used a Wilton leaf-shaped tip (#102 or #104 depending on the ruffle size you prefer).

tiny details

I had dreams about doing this sweet table for my bestie's baby shower. I did a small one during the holidays, and I had been chomping at the bit to do another one.

Loving crafts and being on a budget definitely contributed to and confined ideas for the shower. There were so many wonderful ideas that I came across, but we were working with very specific guidelines.

Because of the venue rules, we were not allowed to hang anything on the walls or from the ceiling. This really limited what we could do in terms of sprucing up the room. So I had to get creative. Seeing various pins of amazing sweet tables, I desperately wanted to do a back drop. Initially, I was going to get some poster board and cover it with fabric. And then I came across an Easter-themed party with lattice decorated with poms. I fell in love. 

Initially, I was going to make the lattice. How hard is it to slap some wood pieces together? But during my visit to Home Depot, the hubs helped me discover that it was cheaper to buy something pre-made. So I did. I made tissue paper poms in various colors and sizes and attached them onto the lattice with floral wire. Excuse my camera phone shot. This was taken after I finished all the poms and arranged them onto the lattice.

I made a 'Sweet Baby' banner hung from twine and clothespins. I found the idea and free printable here. I mixed in some solid backgrounds with the printable ones (which I printed on 'draft' so they came out lighter). These were easy to make, but accordion-folding took the longest, same as the poms. 

I was very proud of the green polka dot cloth drawers holding the cake pops, which I scored from the dollar store -- complete with velcro-attachable dividers. I figured they could be used in the nursery, and if not, they were only a dollar each! 

After all would be said and done, I knew that these sweets would only last a short while. And though I knew mom and dad would appreciate it all, we wanted them to have a little something extra. Fingerprint guest books are more commonly used for weddings, but since a lot of family and friends would be in attendance, I thought it would be a nice idea for the shower and a sweet keepsake for the family.

I enlisted the artistic abilities of the hubs, and he totally rocked it out. I gave him a few guidelines from a couple ideas that I had seen online, and he did everything perfectly! We got a couple stamp pads, put out some hand sanitizer and paper towels for guests to clean up, and now they have a great start to their family tree of love. I suggested they keep it out on their entry table for when people come to visit, since not everyone made it to the shower, but they could still be part of the tree.

For the utensil holders, I covered tin cans with cardstock. I used the cut tops from the lunch bags to create a layered look, then tied some yarn around it and added labels so guests knew what they were grabbing for. Although it's harder to fit into the tin, I put everything with handles up, so guests didn't have to worry about other hands touching their utensils.

Baby's abuela and I made some simple diaper cakes adorned with ribbon to use as centerpieces. We customized a couple of onesies to hang up, and got some fresh flowers and pink and green balloons to round out the decorations. 

And lastly, since we had a buffett-style lunch which included several Filipino dishes, I printed labels for all the food, that way all of the guests knew what they were looking at.

For those who are wondering, we rushed through three of our four shower games. One of the hostesses created a {passive} 'guess the baby's birth date' game. She printed up a couple of calendars and guests signed their name on the date the baby would actually arrive {Nobody won}. The other hostess tapped into her teacher role and made up cute 'gift bingo' playing cards. We used m&ms as our markers.  Baby's abuela did a baby word scramble. We had planned on doing a parents-to-be trivia game, but were pressed for time so we cut it out. 

So many little things go into the success of hostessing an event. It took many hours and was a labor of love ;) and everything turned out great!